Meg Ryan Directing Delia Ephron’s Romantic Comedy ‘The Book’

Meg Ryan is re-teaming with Delia Ephron to direct romantic comedy “The Book,” an original story set in the publishing world.

Ryan made her directorial debut with “Ithaca,” a coming-of-age saga about life on the home front during World War II. The drama, set in a small town in California’s San Joaquin Valley in 1942, follows a teenage boy who aspires to be the fastest bicycle messenger ever.

Ryan shot “Ithaca” in Viriginia in 2014 and starred as the boy’s widowed mother, along with Jack Quaid, Sam Shepard, Melanie Griffith, Hamish Linklater and Tom Hanks. The movie does not have domestic distribution yet.

Ryan and Delia Ephron collaborated on the 1998 romantic comedy “You’ve Got Mail,” which starred Hanks and Ryan. Ephron wrote the screenplay with her sister, the late Nora Ephron. Hanks and Ryan also starred together in “Sleepless in Seattle,” which Nora Ephron directed, and “Joe Versus the Volcano.”

The logline for “The Book,” which Ephron is writing, is being kept under wraps. Her credits include “Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants,” “Bewitched,” “Mixed Nuts” and “Michael.”

Ryan recently signed with Gersh for full representation. She is managed by Jane Berliner at Authentic Talent and Literary Management and her lawyer is Peter Grant at Grubman Shire & Meisela.